Discovering your passion is a journey some individuals are fortunate to discover at an early stage in their lives. For others it tends to be a life long journey before they discover their calling.
Managing Director of Vuleka Schools Melanie Sharland is one of the lucky people to identify what drives her, early on in her career. She started her journey as a part time teacher at Vuleka, just before it opened in 1993. She immediately realised that teaching was her passion in life and embarked on a journey that propelled her into the profession today. Her life’s work has been Vuleka.
“I believe in equal education and opportunities for all pupils. It has been my life’s work to ensure that pupils who go through our system receive the best quality of education,” she said.
The Vuleka project was started by Anne Nettleton and Sonja Vanderleur in response to the inequalities that existed in the education system offered by state schools at the time.
Vuleka is a non-profit organisation that does not receive the same funding as government schools. It is one of the few non-profit school’s that caters to disadvantaged to middle class families in Gauteng. Sharland also said that it is challenging to find sponsors, especially for projects like building costs and teacher salaries. “We are fortunate to have some of the same sponsors supporting us who have been loyal to us because they believe in our vision,” she said.
She continued, “We want the pupils to be able to work in teams through creative thinking and problem solving. Discovering their passion will help us engage with them and indicate methods on how to improve their learning experience.”
Next year the Vuleka group will open their first boys’ school in Sophiatown. Vuleka St Joseph Arch Bishop Mogoba Primary school will teach grades R – 1 but will gradually include all grades up until matric.”Our vision is to take boys and groom them into men one day,” Sharland said.
